~ (sorry, no balloons)

Category Archives: AoS

Greetings, fellow humanoids. Wow, it has been quite some time since I posted anything – simple reason for that… it has been ages since I painted anything!! To be honest, I’ve been in a bit of a funk of late – life has been a bit up & down, and my motivation levels have been pretty much non-existent. I don’t think I’m back to 100% yet, but with gritted teeth, I managed to get some paint down. I don’t know about you guys & gals, but whenever I’m coming out of a slump, I like to tackle something straight forward to get my juices flowing. I find that undead are a great candidate for that, so after a quick rummage in the lead pile, I picked out some cool zombies from the ‘March of the Dead’ kickstarter from last year. Sculpted by the rather excellent Philip Hynes, these minis are the perfect addition to my eclectic undead horde and were all painted in an unfussy way, mostly with washes.

First up, let’s look at some of the ‘regular’ zombies from the range:

There’s a definite black humour, self-mutilation vibe going on with this group – for example, Mr. face-peeler is definitely processing some issues! Highlights in this group are the attitude farmer giving it the finger, and the manic grin on the headless lady. I’m chuffed to have another zombie lady and an undead dwarf to add to my army – death is an equal opportunities employer after all! The anatomy demonstration mini is a pretty cool concept too, and would be a great piece to include in a suitably macabre diorama.

Next, we have this trio of ‘big ‘uns’:

There is less humour on display here, but these guys are just straight-up awesome. The minotaur & Ogre add yet more diversity to my zombie horde, but I decided to paint the ‘crypt thing’ as a living creature – he/she/it is probably going to be the start of a small Ghoul contingent.

Finally, here we have the real reason I was drawn to the KS in the first place – undead farm animals:

These three beasties really push the boundaries when it comes to adding diversity to my undead army – I love the image of all manner of corpses being used in an undead army… death cares not from whence the clay comes after all! I must admit, that pig is about the most disturbing thing I have ever painted… it’s enough to put me off bacon sandwiches! (ok, so that is an exaggeration – nothing could put me off a bacon butty)

Here’s the whole group together (minus the crypt thing):

Anyhoo, that’s it for now folks – I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing these weird & wonderful additions to my legions of undeath! I’ll try and keep the momentum up and get back into the swing of things with some more Eru-Kin and maybe a bit of Necromunda. Catch y’all on the flip-side 🙂

Hi guys, more zombies for you today – I powered through this lot over the week, ready for a game tonight. This time it is the gorgeous Karr-Keel set from Upstream Games House. There is a great backstory on the website for these guys, with the whole set being very narrative driven and a self-confessed ‘vanity project’ for Brian Kirkell’s birthday – an inspirational example to anyone with an idea or two up their sleeves! Furthermore, I believe that there is a second wave in the works for Karr-Keel (Kirkell – geddit?) as well, so hopefully we will see the range expanded. It is well worth checking this set out if you like your zombies quirky – the quality is superb and they are packed full of gorgeous little details, with these being sculpted by none other than Kev ‘not just Goblins’ Adams. Here are my versions – as usual, these are mostly painted with wash directly on to the undercoat:

Check this out – the ‘reflection’ is freehand… I’m quite proud of it 🙂

I also picked up the lovely Teamsters Cart from the Karr-Keel as well, with the intention of using it as a corpse cart. I changed the bell-ringer’s right hand for a lash and planted a sword in there just to make it tie in with AoS a little better, and I added some extra skullage to the cart itself. Again, this is a really nice mini, great fun to build and paint, and it adds some nice hitting power and zombie-buffs in game:

Now, you can’t very well have a shambling plague of zombies without a mind to direct them, so I also finally got around to doing a proper Necromancer for my army. He’s from Diehard miniatures, with the addition of the hourglass in the left hand. With a nod to the late & great George Romero, (father of the modern concept of what a zombie is), may I introduce Gorgo Romero – master of unlife, and high-noctifer of the broken wheel cabal:

Here is Gorgo, driving my entire Fleshwalker horde to glory:

I’ve lost count of the sculptors & manufacturers represented in this group, and of the races/species represented. I’m rather pleased with this wonderfully eclectic mix 🙂

In other news, I had my first experience of RPG on Thursday night, and had a ton of fun with it. I joined with a local group & ended up playing in a trial run of Star Wars: Force and Destiny. A few of the more experienced RPers on the table were quite scathing about it, and it wasn’t really what I expected to be honest – it was less ‘in your head’ and more map driven. It was also far easier than I expected, (though to be fair, it was the first act in the sequence). That said, I still enjoyed it, and had a good laugh with some very interesting group of people. I think it is fair to say that this is something that I would like to explore further, and I’m hoping to get a more authentic experience next week.

Anyway, that’s it for now folks! I’m going to be knuckling down to my Chapel commitments from here on so this may result in fewer posts overall, but hopefully it all comes together nicely and in time 🙂

Hi guys, this will be a quick post today – life is hectic at the moment, so the hobby is very much on the back burner for a few weeks. I did however paint up a few birthday gifts from my brother-in-lead Ross (he of Classic Chaos Daemon fame), who most excellently got me a classic C17 Skeleton command to buff my fledgling AoS undead – I just love these guys, just so much character to them… if you can’t appreciate a skeleton with a Mohawk then you are in the wrong hobby my friend 😉 I also bashed out a skelly emerging from the ground to take my skeleton unit up to the magic AoS 20, (irritating that some units only get good when the multiples of 10 start stacking… go buy more stuff kids!). Ok, so technically the unit is at 19.5, but I am rounding up, ok? OK?? Right… fine… anyway, here they are:

Seeing as I was doing some undead, I also dug out some old school Spirit Host minis, (again from Ross, from an earlier birthday), to add to the party. These minis are so goofy, they make me laugh every time I see them! I have split the host, and will be fielding them as Banshees… I’m calling them the three tenors:

Finally, I added big chaos champion from one of the rather excellent Pantheon of Chaos kickstarters, (now available as ‘The Sword of Echoes‘ over on Knightmare Games). He’s a big old fella, and, while not sold as an undeader, I’ll be fielding him as a Wight King with black axe for some proper crumping power:

And here’s a few group shots with my existing multiracial skellybob unit – just for fun:

Painting was all done in a very quick and easy ‘washy’ & ‘stainy’ kind of way – I quite like the faded look that it gives the minis… an appropriate vibe for the shambling undead IMO.

So that’s it for this post chaps, I told you it was a quick one! Not sure when I will next be posting – the next six weeks are just ridiculous with study & work, so hobby time is going to be scant… Bear with me dear reader, this shall pass, and normal service will resume at some point in June 🙂